A Favor for Elmyra
by sanctum-c
Summary: "In my house - in Sector Five, I mean, in Midgar-" Yuffie stopped breathing. "In the kitchen there's some flowerpots Aeris painted when she was ten. Every year she'd start growing flowers on the window sill and when they got big enough she'd take them to the church." Elmyra stared into Yuffie's eyes. She took a breath. "Can you help me?"


When it came to Elmyra Gainsborough, Yuffie was at a loss as to what to say. The get together was fine up until her arrival; Avalanche together again, the possibility of the Turks being a nuisance, Reeve and Cait Sith with a ventriloquism act. But part way through the evening, the older woman arrived and subtly split the group. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Marlene and Reeve greeted and hugged the older woman warmly. Yuffie, Cid, Vincent, Nanaki hung back a little. They had met Elmyra - briefly - in the aftermath of Meteor, but never in a manner that marked her as a friend per se. The relevant social graces seemed easier for her companions in this situation; all asked after her health and expressed general pleasantries. Yuffie's voice sounded stilted as she echoed their words.

The sombre mood Elmyra arrived under invoked their departed friend well enough. It took some time for the levity of the occasion to return after a toast to absent friends. But somehow talking to Aeris's mother seemed too much. It uncovered a seam of sadness Yuffie worked hard to put behind her; the point on the altar beneath the city when she lost all of her control and wept uncontrollably into Cloud's uniform. Silly. Not as if the woman bore her no more ill-will than anyone else.

No. No, if she was honest there remained something else in her avoidance of Elmyra – something never admitted out loud. A sneaking spark the flower girl had ignited somewhere in her chest. A similar affliction affecting both Tifa and Cloud, though not something holding them back from talking to Elmyra. Was it because they knew her before? Made, fulfilled and broke a promise to get Aeris back?

Once, this situation would be unbelievable. Avalanche were marks, supposed to be victims, not her friends. And – once she accepted they meant that much - not supposed to die on her. Not when she liked spending time with them and wanted to keep getting to know them.

Yuffie huffed and sipped at a cocktail she lifted from the bar. Best not to dwell on Elmyra, Aeris and the associated complex feelings. Who should she sit with instead? Vincent was not going to offer her much - if anything - in the way of conversation. Cloud, Tifa and Barret chatted to Elmyra happily; Reeve, Cid and Shera having an animated discussion about something. So; Nanaki. Yuffie sat down beside her companion and asked him how it was all going.

* * *

The world was fuzzy. Clear enough and vivid enough to be sure of realness, but still somehow distant. Her tolerance for alcohol was not wonderful. She felt slightly dizzy when she stood, but not enough to fall over. And certainly not enough to throw up. The party hours old now, and no one had left yet. She did not want to the first. But there was only so much of this she wanted to endure- "Miss Kisaragi?" Yuffie's back stiffened, someone sat in the chair beside her.

"Ms. Gainsborough." Yuffie sat back down, her tone formal and light. Either the woman had ninja training, or the alcohol was rendering her skills void. The latter was probably more accurate.

"Elmyra, please."

"Yuffie for me then."

Elmyra nodded. "I... I don't want to be rude, but I get the impression you've been avoiding me?"

Yuffie considered her options. "A bit." She held up her hands. "It's not that I don't like you. Just... It feels odd meeting you now, after-"

"I know." Elmyra's voice was quiet. They sat in silence. "How well did you know my daughter?"

"Pretty well." Yuffie winced. Not enough by far. "I mean, she was my friend. And I never expected that. I didn't know what to do with her or treat her at first. She was firing all these questions at me, just asking things. What I liked, what I didn't." She grinned. "She treated me like a grown-up. Made me forget what I was doing sometimes." She leant closer To Elmyra. "I wasn't in the best way when I met this lot. Disrespectful and childish. Gave them all nicknames. Don't ask- Especially what Tifa's was." Elmyra nodded slowly. "But Aeris – I never come up with one for her. I kind of forgot how I was trying to be when I talked to her – went all formal and respectful. Only realised I was doing that after-" Yuffie gulped. Not the time to mention the destination said thoughts took her.

Elmyra smiled. "I don't think I need mention how much she loved to talk then."

"Not in the slightest!" Yuffie leant back slightly. "But she never liked to talk about herself." Elmyra stiffened beside her. "She was always a bit of a mystery. She'd never refuse to answer, but if you ever stopped to think about what she told you- Well, she never really said anything."

"You noticed too?" Elmyra was quiet, her head bowed.

"Easy if you're also hiding something," Yuffie murmured.

Elmyra touched her arm. "I do envy you some of your time with her. All of you; you knew more about her past than I ever did."

Stay calm. Don't blurt it out Yuffie. "Yeah, but I'm not sure she ever wanted us to know. From what Cloud said, the Shinra president dropped that bombshell about her and after that it wasn't like she could pretend they didn't know just who she was."

Elmyra glanced around them. Most of Avalanche around a table playing some game. There was no one nearby. "Yuffie?" She lowered her voice. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Um. Sure?" What, did she want an escort home?

"In my house - in Sector Five, I mean, in Midgar-" Yuffie stopped breathing. "In the kitchen there's some flowerpots Aeris painted when she was ten. Every year she'd start growing flowers on the window sill and when they got big enough she'd take them to the church." Elmyra stared into Yuffie's eyes. "I had to leave them behind. I... I want to carry on the tradition. There should be some seeds there too." She took a breath. "Can you help me?"

* * *

Yuffie scowled as she clambered over another decaying heap. How could she possibly turn Elmyra down after she asked? Though maybe she could have thought about things a bit more thoroughly first. Getting the request sorted was to be the first thing she did the next day. Had she not slept in (late night, copious alcohol imbibed). As it was she did not reach the outer edges of the abandoned Midgar until the sun was already setting. No problem, surely. Not like Yuffie had spent little time in the city and still not used to the scale. Perish the thought.

Shame getting from Sector 1 over to Sector 5 took a lot longer than expected. And the interior of the city had no ambient light anymore. The sky visible around the edges of the city darkened, and plunged everything into deep darkness. Wonderful. She was at least prepared. Shurikens and a torch ought to see her through. Surely there could be nothing living in here anymore.

The quaint cottage firing missiles at her disabused her of the notion. What was Midgar? And so many of her friends used to live in this place? How did one live with the possibility of the real estate coming after you with skeletal arms? Some bad assumptions on her part. Of course not everything would abandon this place. Still at least she evaded the sentient building and a mass of other nasties. She squinted at her watch, flicking the torch on and off briefly to get some idea of the time. Close to midnight.

How far from the other side of Midgar was Elmyra's house? Maybe she could get in, get out and rush straight to the open air. Where was Cid these days? Maybe he could come pick her up after. Yuffie struggled down a pile of debris. A little further and she reached the breach in the concrete wall into Sector Five. No time to relax. Echoey, distant sounds bouncing off the underside of the plate. Difficult to be sure how close anything was. Or what was causing those sounds. Yuffie clutched her shuriken tighter.

Okay. So directions. Should have asked Reeve for something detailed - or at least more recent, but would have involved explaining why and no one needed to know about this trip. Elmyra's hand-drawn map rendered from memory; before people panicked and things got shunted around. Tremors from Meteor, the actions of monsters or humans had rewritten Sector Five's landscape. This was going to be hard- Wait. Flowing water. Yuffie flicked on the light and peered at the map. Elmyra's house was right next to a river. Not much of a landmark, but more permanent than the rest of the place seemed to be.

The distant monster sounds remained distant – how Yuffie liked them. Unfortunately harder to ignore that one of those distant sounds was becoming less distant. And whatever the monster was, it sounded big. Cursing, Yuffie switched the torch off and peered into the gloom. Nowhere close to enough light, but she'd worked in less. Some of the murkier parts of the North Crater worse than this. Okay, so the tanker slumped on it's side kind of resembled the materia shop on the map. That wagon sold weapons, so-

The distant roar was shockingly close, the noise echoing around the city. Was she spotted? Nothing in sight. Keep moving. Running water close now. Even if it was the wrong part of the channel, she at least had a decent place to start from. Debris crunched and broke under her feet; not a lot of options for stealth when walking near blind in this junkpile of a former city. Her pursuer could likely hear her. Any shelter would be good at this rate. Something loomed in the near distance and Yuffie shrank back. Another living house? Wait.

The design was similar, but the structure seemed better maintained and remained idle with her at such close proximity. Another roar behind her. Not like she had a lot of choice. The water rushed nearby, lost in the gloom beyond what her eyes could pick out. "Hope this is your house Aeris." Yuffie fumbled the key from her pouch.

It slid home without resistance and the door creaked open. She pushed it closed, relocked and crouched on the floor. Heavy footfalls outside, massive feet slamming into the debris, the wheezing breath of a huge monster – not something she would wish to encounter alone. Yuffie breathed as shallowly as she could, resisting the urge to check on what had pursued her here.

Something jarred against the door, the wood and hinges creaking alarmingly. Yuffie slithered back across the chilled stone floor. She stopped when her hand made contact with a rug. Another movement against the door and- Nothing. Heavy footfalls faded with distance.

She held her breath still, not daring to let out a sigh of relief. She waited a heart-pounding year, two decades and shakily got to her feet. There was almost nothing to see from the window – near pitch-black out there, and she was not about to shine a torch. Here for the night; no sense in risking another encounter out there. Shielding her torch with one hand, Yuffie flicked it on. A nook off to one side held a stove and a few cupboards. There was a table in the centre of the room, a sink under one of the windows to her left and a set of stairs going up. She flicked the torch off and waited in the dark. Her heartbeat pulsed in her ears, no heavy stamp of the creature.

Best not to chance fate – high ground would be better. And the locked door and intact nature of the windows implied the upper story would be in much the same state as the lower; intact but abandoned. At least there should be a bed she could use until morning. Memory was enough to guide her around the table, and to her relief the stairs did not creak. A few of the upper hall-way floorboards did though, each one making her heart skip and left her paralysed in an awkward posture listening for renewed interest by the indigenous Midar fauna. Nothing.

Okay, she needed to get off her feet and wait this out. Moving around held far too many risks. Three doors up here. Think. What had Elmyra said about the house? The flowerpots were downstairs – as were the seeds. Cloud had mentioned his visit to the place once – as had Tifa, Barret and Marlene. One of these rooms was Aeris's. Did it matter though? She needed a place to crash; she could look for the flowerpots tomorrow when there was some form of ambient light. Right now she needed to get to sleep. Yuffie reached out for the door at the top of the stairs. Locked.

Good start. Well, sleeping on the bare boards wouldn't be terrible, but she kind of had her heart set on a comfy mattress. Yuffie stepped carefully forward heading for the next door. It opened easily, releasing a floral scent. It seemed to drift over her and all she could think of was her. "Aeris." Not realised she linked the two together before, but there was no escaping the connection now. This was her room. She could sleep in her bed. Yuffie dithered. Should she not invade like this? The loud but still safely distant roar of the monster made her decision. Rest first – stop over thinking things.

Cramped room, faintly musty and suffused with the same floral scent. A single bed lay against one wall and Yuffie carefully sat down, relieved when it did not so much as creak. The air felt still but otherwise it was comfortably warm. An impulse to open the window was quickly dismissed – who knew what kind of creatures lurked in the air here too. Nothing for it but rest now. Yuffie undid her boots and carefully placed them on the floor. The blankets and pillows smelled of her as she lay down. She imagined Aeris with her, arms draped around her shoulders, Yuffie's head resting on Aeris's lap. The roar shattered the illusion and Yuffie hoped the creature would tire of the area soon.

* * *

Yuffie blinked awake to blazing sunlight. What in the-? She shielded her eyes and wriggled into a sitting position. The sun's rays hit her through a precise angle - over the horizon, under the plate and right into Aeris's room. Her watch indicated five hours sleep maybe? Yuffie slumped back and grumbled before rolling onto the floor. She needed to get back out of the city - as much as dozing in bed for a bit longer felt like a far more pleasing proposition. Her head felt fuzzy and distant. Yuffie yawned and stretched, staring around the sparse room. Thick rug on the floor, the remains of several flowers on the dresser, shelf of battered paperbacks. And, shoved down the side of the mattress against the wall, a thin volume. A diary? The temptation to look, to read her words after all this time came easily but no. She would leave the flower girl her secrets.

A glance out the window revealed no monsters. Hopefully whatever skulked around in the dark last night was long gone. Time to get moving. Get the flowerpots, get the seeds, get out of the city and hopefully never come back.

Yuffie froze as she opened the door. Was there a light on downstairs? How? Who? It should be impossible. The mako reactors all stood inert and lifeless. She had locked the door last night she was sure of it. But the power was on. The tinny sound of a radio drifted up from downstairs, heavily static ridden, clear enough to suggest the early morning show so popular in Kalm. And- Food. Toast and grease. Someone was cooking down there. Yuffie crept out cautiously - but she had forgotten the floorboards. The floor creaked under her foot; the light and sound vanished. The food smells remained.

Now this was strange. Yuffie crept down the stairs, shuriken at the ready. The front door was still locked and none of the windows open or broken. Nothing moved or disturbed - except in the nook where the cooker lived. A frying pan sat on the hob, the air surrounding it still warm as Yuffie approached. Two slices of toast lay on a plate nearby, the toaster beside them still warm to the touch. Magic breakfast. She eyed the toast and frying pan suspiciously. Eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausages. All of it smelled fine. The toast did not look remotely mouldy. But how could it be edible after so long?

Her stomach rumbled; Yuffie nibbled at the toast. So good. Impossible or no, it was not as if she was getting anything else to eat. A stray thought as she sat down - some ghost story about eating enchanted food and falling asleep and winding up trapped as a zombie. The thought almost gave her pause and a shiver. Her stomach complained again; Yuffie plunked the plate down on the table and set about eating the impossible breakfast. It all tasted fine - first sign of feeling unwell and she would throw the whole lot up. Maybe best to go see a doctor after this adventure. She wiped the plate under the tap after she ate; she could only clean up so far - the washing liquid was a hard crust at the bottom of the bottle and the water remained ice cold.

The light outside darkened as the sun shifted higher and the plate blocked out more of its rays. Her torch provided enough light to see inside and it only took a few wrong cupboards to find what had to be the flowerpots; amateurishly painted and covered with crude renditions of flowers and plants. Yuffie smiled at Aeris's past handiwork. Seeds close at hand. Job done.

Everything better by the light of day – well, as much light as Midgar was ever likely to receive. Yuffie ventured outside, shuriken still at the ready. Nothing obvious – the rush of water from nearby and the now overgrown garden, spilling out over fences and into the rest of the Sector. So many yellow flowers. An oasis in the city; singularly appropriate for Aeris. The others had alluded to how the flower girl wound up living here on a few occasions, but still hard to believe the location of her home was not a conscious decision.

Still, she had what she came for – now time to get back to somewhere civilised. It was early enough to consider cutting back through the centre of the city – she would wind up near Kalm that way. The route back easier by daylight-

Yuffie stopped dead and hastily crouched down. A Behemoth stalked through the ruined city heading more or less parallel to her. It seemed to be heading for the gate into Sector Six. She shivered; those roars seemed a lot like Behemoth roars after thinking about it. Okay, so choices. She could follow at a distance, hope the creature never turned around and trail it as far as necessary. She could try and attack it, but Behemoths were never creatures to take lightly. Or she could head for the outer edge of Sector Five and work her way back around the whole city. Much farther to walk-

The Behemoth spotted her, its mouth wide, its roar splitting the air. No choice; Yuffie darted from her hiding spot, skidding across the debris piles as a lumbering weight smashed into the ground behind her. So close; no she could not give up now. But how long could she expect to keep running? The less than ideal sleep had not left her in the best of ways and the Behemoth was faster than she was.

She needed to get out of its sight and hope the thing's sense of smell was not so good – and that it would get bored. A swell in the trash ahead offered some possibilities. Yuffie ran faster, leaping across the pile in a dive. Foolish; no idea what the landing was like, but worth the risk. Safe landing. Now what? There was a pipe nearby; hopefully enough cover. Yuffie dove inside and scrambled around to keep an eye out. She held still and waited.

And waited.

Nothing. The pursuing Behemoth was nowhere in sight. Okay, she was not that lucky.

The thing had to be lying in wait and was waiting for her to make the first move. But try as she might she could not hear a thing. The now all too familiar calls of startled sentient houses sounded in the distance, but there was no roar of confusion or intrigue from her pursuer. One minute leeched into five. Ten. By fifteen, Yuffie was growing impatient. She wriggled forward soundlessly and peered out of the pipe. No purple fur. No claws. Above her? She glance up. No Behemoth there. Standing at the top of the trash rise nearby? Yuffie ducked her head out and back inside again. Nothing.

Still a risk of the thing running her down, but it was surely better to take advantage of the creature's disappearance and get out while she could. Cid's number on her phone – any excuse would do to get him to pick her up. Cloud would do too – if he was somewhere nearby. Yuffie crawled out of the pipe, her body tensed and ready to retreat. Nothing.

Sector Five seemed entirely Behemoth-free. Time to get moving.

She picked her way towards the outer edge of the city – no amount of time-saving seemed worth risking another encounter with the Behemoth now. Sector Five seemed quiet as she ventured through it – one dirt road cutting through the debris. Had it always been like this? From what Tifa said about Sector Seven before the plate-drop, it was nothing like the trash mountains of Five. This stuff must be ancient; were those rockets? What might have been a robot, a church-

Yuffie stopped and swallowed. A church. Her church. Somehow she had forgotten; forgotten what Tifa once said about the brief visit she ever managed to make here. Cloud was more guarded with what he found as he fell from the upper plate to land right in Aeris's lap. Still no sign of the Behemoth. Most of the day ahead of her, and now a burning curiosity. What was it like now? Could her garden possibly have endured without it's curator in the intervening time? Would it be a bad memory and disappointment she never witnessed it in it's hey-day? Maybe.

But resisting this temptation was too much for her. She had to see. Had to know. Not like the diary; many people had seen the church.

The hinges creaked horribly, the air inside musty as Yuffie pushed the door open. Hopefully the Behemoth had not heard it. Still nothing. Echoing floorboards, splintery pews. A mass of flowers bloomed and seemed to glow in the sun's rays. Improbable, impossible, but here. Aeris's garden. Hallowed ground. Yuffie walked to the edge of the flowers, her boots kicking up dust as she walked. She had the seeds, had the flowerpots. Should be enough.

"You can take a flower. I don't mind." Yuffie floundered forward and fell into the flora. Aeris Gainsborough chuckled at her, her hands clasped behind her back.

"Ghost, I mean, Aeris. I mean-" Yuffie gaped. A conflict; fear of ghosts and the supernatural on one hand. On the other; her. "You're-"

"Dead." Her smile remained as she walked closer. "Still dead." A pew was visible through her body, clear but faded somehow. "But not gone."

"I, um-" Yuffie blinked.

"Sorry, I know this is a shock." Aeris sat beside Yuffie.

"So you're a ghost?"

Aeris shook her head. "No." A weight lifted from Yuffie's chest. "Restless spirits are something else. This is a… projection if you like. I can't do it many places. It's strongest here."

"Impressive." Yuffie poked a finger at her friend. She met resistance.

"Hey!" Aeris swatted at her hand. "I might be translucent but I'm not immaterial." She cocked her head to one side. "Not figured it out yet?"

"You cooked me breakfast?" Yuffie ventured. Aeris grinned. "You can do that?"

"I can."

Another prod. Yuffie's finger passed through the image of Aeris, the vision offering no resistance this time. "You do seem a lot like a ghost." The thought still gave her problems. "Are you stuck here?"

"In a manner of speaking. But in many others I'm more free than I ever- Oh. You might want to get out of the way for a moment." Aeris stared up towards the roof. No; through the ragged hole in the church roof. Yuffie followed her gaze, catching a glimpse of something rushing towards them. She grabbed for Aeris's arm, her fingers passing through. Rain fell around her as she unceremoniously crashed face-first into the flower patch. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Yuffie spluttered and struggled out of the rain. "Sorry about your flowers. Again." She frowned as the downpour reduced. "Where did that come from? I can't see any clouds up there."

"There's a pumping station attached to the reactor." Aeris gestured up through the roof to the looming mass of the reactor above. "It used to provide cooling, but when Avalanche destroyed the reactor, it wound up open to the air. So, it collects rain-fall over time – and I use it to keep the flowers healthy."

"That's a pretty neat coincidence."

"Oh, it's no coincidence." Lump in Yuffie's throat when Aeris looked at her again. "I reprogrammed the interface."

"You- What?" Yuffie blinked. "How? I know you cooked me breakfast and everything but-"

"I exist as energy now. Energy that can move around…" Aeris shrugged. "Shinra made things easier for the Planet – it just never realised it."

"I thought they were killing it," Yuffie said flatly.

"Oh they were." Aeris toyed with one of her bangs. "But no one realised that by using mako energy to generate power as they were, they left an opening for a suitably inquisitive individual to get into the electrical systems."

"And that would be you." Aeris nodded. "So you open the hatch up there when you need to?"

"When my program dictates. Getting into circuits and stuff isn't too hard. The city's not in the best of ways but I've got it to work enough to get by. I'm slowly spreading out to control everything."

"So you could escape? Get out to the world. Hey, we could ever get Reeve to build you a robot body. You could control that right?" Yuffie said excitedly.

"While that would be fun… my time, my people's time is over. I think I need to stay here. I want to see the flowers bloom and this place consumed by the planet." Yuffie's face must have betrayed her disappointment. "It was a good idea. And I would love to try, but- I'm not actually sure if was possible without a connection back to the Lifestream. Not very elegant for a robot."

"So you're just going to stay here, tend flowers?" Yuffie muttered. "You'll get lonely."

"I'm never alone. The Planet, every soul who ever lived is with me."

"If I'd known- I could bring the others too."

Aeris smiled but shook her head. "I would like that... But no. They have to keep on living. I can't let them get shackled to their past - to me."

"What about me?" Yuffie's heart sank.

"You know I'm here, and I had to keep you safe-"

Of course. "You got rid of the Behemoth too?" A wide grin from Aeris. "Thank you."

Aeris reached out, her hand never seemed to make contact but there was warmth against Yuffie's cheek. "I want you to move on too. I've had my time - however short it was. You need to live and rebuild. Wasn't that your dream? A Wutai returned to glory?"

Her cheeks felt hot. Aeris could see right through her. "Yeah, yeah that was it. I just..."

"There will always be missed opportunities." Aeris took her hand. "So please, live on. For me. And when you get time, come visit and tell me how things are."

"I can do that." Yuffie let out a shuddering breath. Her heart ached, but she would get past it. She had to. For Aeris. Aeris's smile made everything seem worth it. "I'm guessing you don't want a message passed to your mom either?"

Aeris shook her head. "Just give her the flowerpots like she asked. I would like her to keep moving on too."

"Okay." And now the situation became uncomfortable, frustration a knot in Yuffie's chest. She needed space, needed time to adjust and perhaps (weeks, months, years later?) come back. "I should get going I guess. Get these to your mom?"

Aeris nodded. "Thank you. I'll be here - when you're next in the area."

"Until then." Yuffie hurried from the church, her heart pounding in her chest. The tight knot of frustration loosened as she walked and by the time she was clear of Midgar had almost faded. A new day was dawning and with it came so many opportunities.


End file.
